The Mother Divine

[Guest guest]

Om Sri Sai Ram to All,

 

Wishing everyone a very blessed and powerful Navaratri

Feastival. Since the festival signifies victory of

good over evil, let us all try and destroy our bad

qualities from our way of life and become good and

virtuous.

Below is a discourse from our beloved bhagavan.

Neena

 

 

 

14 Oct 1988

Occasion: Dasara

Place: Prashanti Nilayam

 

The Mother Divine

 

Everyone should consider it his foremost duty today to

revere the mother as divine and serve her, regardless

of country or circumstance. If a man cannot respect

and serve the mother, who has borne him for nine

months, brought him forth into the world and reared

him over the years, whom else is he likely to respect?

Maternal love is akin to that of the Creator who

projects and protects this infinite cosmos in

countless ways. One individual may elect to worship

the Divine in the form of his favorite goddess.

Another may worship God in a different form and derive

bliss from such worship. Each one should note that the

forms in which the Divine is worshipped by others are

as important to them as his own chosen deity is to

him. If, on the contrary, he criticizes or casts a

slur on the deities worshipped by others, he is

committing a grievous sin, however well he may be

performing his own worship. Likewise, a man should

show equal regard and reverence for mothers of others

as he shows for his own mother.

 

There are several notable examples in daily life of

the divine quality which motherhood represents. The

cow converts its own blood into nourishing milk for

man to sustain his body. The cow is the first example

of the Divine as Mother. The Earth comes next. Like

the Divine, the Earth bears man in its bosom and takes

care of him in many ways. Hence the Earth also is the

embodiment of the Mother.

 

Principles that constitute the role of motherhood

 

In the human body the Divine flows through all the

limbs as Rasa (The Divine essence) and sustains them.

This Divine principle is called Rasaswaroopini

(Embodiment of Divine sweetness). Another name for the

same is Angirasa. These Divine principles that

permeate and sustain the physical body should also be

worshipped as mother goddesses. Then there are the

great sages, the Maharishis, who investigated matters

relating to good and evil, right and wrong, what

elevates man or degrades him, and, as a result of

their labors and penance, gave to mankind the great

scriptures, indicating the spiritual and mundane paths

and how humanity can redeem its existence. These sages

have also to be revered as Divine Mothers.

 

The cow, the earth, the presiding deities for the

body, the sages and the guru are all worthy of worship

as the embodiments of the Divine Motherhood. Although

these five appear in different forms and names, they

have one thing in common with the mother. They play a

protective and sustaining maternal role for mankind

and hence should be revered and worshipped as Divine

Mothers.

 

Conversely, the mother of every child displays in

relation to the child the attributes of these five

entities. The mother nourishes the child, provides the

necessaries for its growth, teaches the child what it

should know and what it should avoid and leads it on

the path of righteousness.

 

The powers of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati

 

The life of a man who cannot respect and love such a

venerable mother, is utterly useless. Recognizing

one's mother as the very embodiment of all divine

forces, one must show reverence to her and treat her

with love. This is the true message that the

Navaratri, the nine-night festival gives us. The

supreme Shakti manifests herself in the form of Durga,

Lakshmi and Saraswati. Durga grants to us

energy--physical, mental and spiritual. Lakshmi

bestows on us wealth of many kinds--not just money but

intellectual wealth, the wealth of character and

others. Even health is a kind of wealth. She grants

untold riches to us. And Saraswati bestows on us

intelligence, the capacity for intellectual enquiry

and the power of discrimination. The Navaratri

festival is celebrated in order to proclaim to the

world the power of the goddesses. One's own mother is

the combination of all these Divine beings. She

provides us energy, wealth and intelligence. She

constantly desires our advancement in life. So she

represents all the three goddesses that we worship

during the Navaratri festival.

 

If the Pandavas were able to become so dear to Krishna

and make their lives worthy by serving Him, it was not

on account of their own merit or austerities. It was

mother Kunti Devi's love for them that brought to them

such a great fortune. Even when they had to live in a

forest or in the House of Wax, she always stayed with

them and prayed for their welfare. The Pandavas also

reciprocated her love, and that accounts for their

final victory.

 

Lakshmana, likewise, was able to dwell in the forest

with his brother Rama, serving him ceaselessly, only

because of his mother Sumitra's blessings. She told

her son that Ayodhya without Rama was like a forest,

and that the forest in which Rama lived would be a

veritable Ayodhya to him. It was on account of the

hearty blessings of his mother that Lakshmana was able

to while away fourteen years in the forest even

without food or sleep.

 

Children require mother's loving, grace

 

All our epics and sacred books emphasize the power of

the mother's love, her blessings and grace. Consider

the story of Gandhari and the Kauravas. When Krishna

visited Gandhari to console her after the Kurukshetra

war, she accused him of partiality towards the

Pandavas. "Though You are God, how could You be so

partial? Why did You support the Pandavas in full

measure, and allow the destruction of all my sons?"

she asked Him. Krishna replied to her that she herself

was to blame for the death of her children. He

reminded her that though she gave birth to a hundred

sons, she didn't cast her loving glance on even one of

them at any time. As she chose to remain blind-folded,

she never looked at any of her sons with great care,

attention and affection. "How could such sinners who

couldn't even enjoy their own mothers loving grace

thrive and flourish?" He asked her.

 

There is no need to propitiate Durga, Lakshmi and

Saraswati for energy, material prosperity and worldly

knowledge. If we love and adore the mother, we shall

be showing our love and devotion to all goddesses.

 

Mother comes first

 

One's mother is greater than heaven itself. Sri Rama

Himself declared that one's mother and Motherland are

greater than even heaven. The Navaratri festival

teaches this profound truth. One must remember that

reverence to one's own mother is one's paramount duty.

If one's mother is unhappy, all the expenditure one

incurs and all the worship one offers in the name of

Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati in the Navaratri festival

will yield no fruit.

 

Even in the ancient teachings about the persons who

are to be revered as Gods--mother, father, teacher and

guest--the first place is given to the mother, when it

says, "Matru Devo Bhava." Even in our casual talk we

say mother, father, teacher and God. God is relegated

to the last position but the mother is given the first

place. This reveals the attitude of Bharatiya culture

towards women in general and the mother in particular.

 

It is the mother that holds the child with her hand

and teaches it how to walk. It is the mother that

feeds the child and teaches it how to eat. It is again

the mother that teaches the child how to utter

meaningful sounds and speak. Thus the mother is one's

foremost teacher. Vemana observed that a son who does

not care for his parents is no better than a worm that

is born and die in an ant-hill.

 

We should deem our parents as Iswara and Parvati and

serve them whole-heartedly. If we cannot please them,

how can we hope to please God? Consider the story of

Lava and Kusa. Sita gave birth to them in the

hermitage of Sage Valmiki. They were taught various

branches of knowledge by him. Sita also was teaching

them many lessons and imparting to them many skills.

What happened when Sri Rama Himself came to fight with

them? Lava and Kusa remembered their mother with great

reverence and aimed an arrow at Him. Rama fell into a

swoon when the arrow struck Him. Such is the power of

one's mother's blessing.